The long awaited Bilski decision was released today, and while I haven’t had the chance to read it yet, I have skimmed the blogosphere enough to know what it said. Basically, the Federal Circuit went a little too far, and…
Patent thinkers are going crazy for the Supreme Court to issue Bilski v. Kappos, a case with potential to change the patent landscape: Inventive Step Patently-O – guest post from my old Munich professor John Duffy IPWatchdog ABAJournal 271 Patent…
If you are starting a company or a new line of products, you can pick a name or logo with an eye toward the trademark ramifications. This is a great scenario. Clients who have been using names for years and…
Have you ever taken a photo of a busy city street filled with billboards and neon signs? Or maybe a shot of your new car to show it off to your friends? Have you gone around your home identifying photographing…
Just because something is protected by copyright doesn’t mean it’s hands-off to you. In some situations, you are allowed to reproduce such material. Newscasts rely on this exception to copyright protection often, showing clips of movies, tv shows, commercials. A…
The Patent Office has a nice flowchart on its website that describes the patenting process. It could be helpful to give the inventor an understanding of the road in front of him when he comes up with an invention and…
Patent applications typically take quite a while to become actual patents. It’s currently taking between 2 and 4 years just to get the First Office Action from the Patent Office. There are a few ways to speed up the examination…
Fellow Harvey Mudd College grad Janet Hansen, who is President and Chief Fashion engineer of Enlighted Designs, has found, perhaps inadvertently, a way to combat the inability to get copyright protection in clothing design. While you generally can’t protect the…
Marking your work with a copyright notice does a number of things: – notifies the public that the work is protected by copyright and that the owner takes that protection seriously – distinguishes the work as not being in the…